Today we celebrate the 1,701st anniversary of the dedication of the Church known as St John Lateran in Rome, which took place in 324. As is well known, there are four major basilicas in Rome: St John Lateran, St Peter’s in the Vatican, St Paul’s outside the walls, and St Mary Major. However, despite there being four major basilicas, we only celebrate the dedication of St John Lateran’s. In fact, the order in which the major basilicas are listed above is their order of ranking

Back in 2013, scientists came across some bones in a cave. These bones belonged to an unknown human species, some 300,000 years old, which they named Homo Naledi,  with a brain about a third the size of modern Homo Sapiens . Surprisingly, these bones seemed to be organised in such a way as to suggest they had been deliberately interred. There’s been much debate about whether other Homo Naledi buried them ,  or some natural process brought the bones there, or contemporary or l

Jesus begins this parable very simply: “Two men went up to the temple to pray.”  Nothing dramatic—just two men, going about something holy. But as the story unfolds, it overturns everything we expect.    One of them is admired and respected—a man of faith, known for his devotion. The other is despised, mistrusted, and written off as a sinner. Yet when they go home again, it’s not the respected man, but the despised one, who is justified before God.    This story is not only a

At the end of his mortal life with us, Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That is, the Son of God called on his Father in the depths of suffering and distress. It was a dark day for humanity when the Son saw his abandonment, when not even God’s only Son seems to catch heaven’s ear. There are uncertainties about him saying “Why have you forsaken me?”: is he quoting a psalm? Has he lost sight of heaven? Is he showing us what to do? In what sense is he

Recently I heard a song playing in a shop. I vaguely registered that I hadn’t heard that song in over twenty years. That was my only...

(The first Sunday of October in the Province of the Assumption is celebrated as Rosary Sunday) One of the many gifts to the people of God...

When I was a nineteen-year old science student at the University of Adelaide, there were four students called Gillard. I became friends...

Today’s parable might strike us as somewhat bizarre. It seems to present a dishonest steward as someone to imitate. This is despite the...

We can often romanticise the past. Take our own history. Many people lived and died with extraordinary heroism to make our own life...

This Sunday, Pope Leo XIV will canonise Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati as a saint. There is no doubt that this young man is an inspiration for...

When he was received into the Catholic Church, John Henry Newman had an uncertain future.  For twenty years he had been an Anglican...

One of the least admirable traits of public figures is their ability to field dozens of questions from journalists without giving direct...

Too often in our glancing through scripture do we seek the comfortable, loving, and consoling words of Jesus; phrases like: "Come to me...

Shortly after the Second World War, a communist government took over Czechoslovakia, and started cracking down on dissent and religious...

Today’s feast is the feast of Dominican friars, nuns, sisters and laity all around the world, of whom there are more than 100,000. It is...

How we read a text depends on what questions we bring to it. We might think of Abraham’s negotiation with God as being about whether a...

Among the congregations who hear this Gospel read this Sunday, I suspect more than a few people would have quiet sympathy for Martha....

Taking every form of evil upon himself and demonstrating God’s love as expiatory, Christ Jesus , this God-man, removes the debt which humanity incurred with its disobedience thus rendering humanity potentially debt free, the curse of eternal punishment lifted and thus as Paul writes he made peace by his death on the cross.

When Jesus sends out the seventy-two disciples in Luke 10, it might seem at first like a simple mission of peace: they are to heal the...

Why on earth would anyone start believing in the resurrection of Jesus?  Why would anyone take the apostles at their word, when they say...